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Contributor

07.19.10

Richard Youngs, Beyond The Valley Of Ultrahits

Label: Jagjaguwar / SC Distribution

Throughout his unusual and eclectic career (which has spanned nearly 30 years), Richard Youngs's music has always been about his voice. It's not like he's got a tremendously dynamic instrument capable of especially rich tones or Mariah Carey-like acrobatics. Rather, it's a thin indie rock warble that often cracks and shakes. Still, there's a sweetness to his approach, and the melodies he constructs on Beyond the Valley of Ultrahits — his strongest album to… read more »

Contributor

07.19.10

Richard Youngs, Beyond The Valley Of Ultrahits

Label: Jagjaguwar / SC Distribution

Throughout his unusual and eclectic career (which has spanned nearly 30 years), Richard Youngs's music has always been about his voice. It's not like he's got a tremendously dynamic instrument capable of especially rich tones or Mariah Carey-like acrobatics. Rather, it's a thin indie rock warble that often cracks and shakes. Still, there's a sweetness to his approach, and the melodies he constructs on Beyond the Valley of Ultrahits — his strongest album to date — provide the ideal vessel for Youngs to let his primary instrument stretch and run free.

The British-born Youngs grew up in the idyllic London suburb of Harpenden and now lives in Glasgow — always seemingly on the precipice between the hustle of modern living and the nearly mystical quality of the English countryside. The music on Beyond the Valley of Ultrahits splits the difference between those two universes, dividing its time between sweet folk workouts ("Summer Void," "Like a Sailor") and busier, more electronic-based fare ("A Storm of Light Ignites My Heart," "Oh Reality").

Though the arrangements sometimes seem painfully basic ("Still Life in a Room" is little more than Youngs harmonizing with himself over a muted keyboard-generated drumbeat), they are deceptively complex. Guitars dart in and out, fading into feedback and coming back again. Strange percussion instruments sneak into the background, counter-balancing the robotic rhythms up front.

But it always comes back to Youngs's voice. He settles into a dreamy croon for most of Beyond the Valley of Ultrahits, which turn tracks like "Radio Innocents" and "The Valley in Flight" into ethereal trips down rabbit holes dug by minimalist synthesizers. It's not for everyone, but if you give into Youngs' low-fi approach and his "whatever sounds pretty" aesthetic, the songs on Beyond the Valley of Ultrahits will reveal themselves to be deep, beautiful and rewarding — not unlike Youngs himself.

In his 20-plus year recording career, composer and multi-instrumentalist Richard Youngs has covered much ground: he’s written and recorded wildly different takes on Scottish folk music (Sapphie) and (Airs of the Ear), primal, open-ended sonic architectures on the brilliant River Through Howling Sky, the near-microtonal drone songs of Under Stellar Stream, the deeply conceptual avant songs on Advent, and a near-psychedelic reflection on electro with Like a Neuron. He’s also collaborated artist as disparate as Simon Wickham-Smith, Kawabata Makoto, and Jandek. Few, however, expected him to try his hand at making a “pop” album. Nonetheless, Beyond the Valley of the Ultrahits is just that — or at least his vision of what “pop” is. Done on a dare and released as a limited CD-R on Sonic Oyster Records, it’s been reissued on LP with a digital download coupon by Jagjaguwar. For those worrying about Youngs giving up his individuality for a lark, relax. Youngs’ compositional, ever forward “voice” is utterly ingrained in these ten highly textured — somewhat — conventionally melodic, and rhythmically standard (2/4 and 4/4) tunes. Using synths, sequencers, drum machines, guitars, basses, and multi-tracked vocals, Youngs plays, programs, and sings everything here. On “Like a Sailor,” with its gently propulsive sequencers, jittery electronics, and watery sampled atmospheric sounds, Youngs’ tender, lilting vocals remind one of Robert Wyatt, though they’re slightly more robust. “Collapsing Stars,” with its multi- layered vocals, synths, strings, and a stinging guitar solo is the most beautiful and visceral cut here; his melody touches on early New Order and mid-period Talk Talk. “Radio Innocents,” which is much denser, sonically reflects latter-era Depeche Mode as it meditates on forgiveness and memory in a perceived endlessly resonant space-time continuum. There is a folk melody at the tune’s heart — and another fine electric guitar solo — that reminds the listener this is Youngs version on pop, rather than pop itself. The final selection, “Sun Points at the World,” with blippy electronics, a two-note bassline, and a skeletal melody is a gorgeously atmospheric romance in less than four minutes, with Youngs channeling Mark Hollis on the vocal. Beyond the Valley of the Ultrahits is an accurately titled collection that extends Youngs reach as a writer, composer, and conceptualist without concession, kitsch, or irony. It is as hauntingly beautiful as anything he’s done, while simultaneously being more “accessible.” – Thom Jurek